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Police rescued a hostage yesterday after a nine-day ordeal – the longest such abduction ever dealt with by the Metropolitan Police.

He was kidnapped and beaten after a dispute between drugs gangs and was held at an address in Liverpool. After the man was freed, officers raided several addresses across the country.

Scotland Yard claimed it had ‘ripped the heart out of one of the country’s most significant criminal networks’.

The man was snatched from his car on the way to work in London on March 13. Up to 200 police – led by officers from the Met – were involved in the inquiry and tracked the victim north.

As he was freed, armed squads raided a series of addresses, arresting 11 men and a woman and seizing cash, guns and drugs.

Officers swooped on homes in Knowsley on Merseyside, Denham in Buckinghamshire and Brentwood in Essex. Searches will continue today.

More than 10kg of cocaine, bags of amphetamines, two guns and about £200,000 in cash were recovered.

The victim, 42, had superficial injuries to his body and face.

Det Chief Supt Sharon Kerr, of the specialist crime directorate, said: ‘Not only have we saved this man’s life, we have got a lot of intelligence and ripped the heart out of one of the country’s most significant criminal networks.’

The investigation into the kidnapping was ‘totally covert’ and involved officers from several forces, she added.